Aspergillus fumigatus during COPD exacerbation: a pair-matched retrospective study

Background Recently awareness of the importance of Aspergillus colonization in the airway of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) was rising. The aim of this study was to investigate the clinical features and short-term outcomes of COPD patients with Aspergillus colonization during acute exacerbation. Methods A pair-matched retrospective study on patients presenting with COPD exacerbation was conducted from January 2014 to March 2016 in Beijing Hospital, China. Results Twenty-three patients with Aspergillus colonization and 69 patients as controls, diagnosed of COPD exacerbation, were included in this study at a pair-matched ratio of 1:3. In stable stage, the percentage of patients with high-dose corticosteroids inhalation in the Aspergillus colonization group is higher than that of in control group (65.5% vs 33.3%, p = 0.048). Multivariate analysis showed that corticosteroids use was the risk factor for isolation of Aspergillus. In acute exacerbation stage, patients in Aspergillus colonization group received higher dose of inhaled corticosteroids and more types of antibiotics than control group. The short-time outcome hinted that the remission time and the duration of hospitalization were longer in the Aspergillus colonization group than in the control group (remission time: 11 ± 4 days vs 7 ± 4 days, p = 0.001; duration: 15 ± 5 days vs 12 ± 4 days, p = 0.011). Conclusions Aspergillus colonization in the lower respiratory tract of COPD patients showed typical clinical manifestations, affected their short time outcome and provided a dilemma of clinical treatment strategy. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s12890-018-0611-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.